Monday, 28 July 2008

SHOCK! Gordon Ramsay nearly drowns after cliff fall

Celeb chef plunges into sea while filming for TV show

TV chef Gordon looks an odd colour at a celebration of his new restaurant Gordon Ramsay At The London in Los Angeles.

Gordon Ramsay was filming The F Word at the time

Gordon Ramsay nearly died after he slipped off a cliff into freezing cold water.

The celeb chef plunged 280ft while filming The F Word in Iceland’s Westman Islands.

‘I thought I was a goner,’ he explains. ‘They say cats have 9 lives. I’ve had 12 already and I don’t know how many more I’ll have.

'I remember thinking, “Oh f***”. My boots and my waterproofs were dragging me down.

‘I’m an extremely good swimmer, but I couldn’t get to the surface. I was panicking and my lungs were filling with water.

'When I got to the top after getting my boots off I was dazed and my head was totally numb.’

Gordon, 41, failed to surface for 45 seconds – but his TV crew managed to rescue him by throwing him a rope.

The cook, who also had treatment for a gash on his leg, was later given the all-clear at London’s Cromwell Hospital.

‘When I was underwater all I could think of was [my wife] Tana and my kids,’ he tells The Sun.

‘It wasn’t until I was on the plane home I realised what a close call I’d had.’